Reserve system doesn’t work

Today I heard a statement made by Jean Chretien that is probably the only time him and I agreed on anything. He said in effect, that sometimes people living on reserves, must move to find a better life (I only heard this one time, and it probably will never be repeated by the traditional media, as they seem to prefer blaming whitey for all the ills of the reserve system, and would not like statements such as his).

Most natives fully understand this and have done so over the years, I understand the number is 75 per cent that have moved on to a brighter future.

I also understand that 40,000 businesses across the country are owned and operated by native peoples, and good for them! Many of them employ white people also with good paying jobs.

Children forced by circumstance to live in isolation with no hope for a better future are being deprived of all the best this country can provide with hard work, perseverance, and opportunity.

There is little or no opportunities for most children living in the middle of nowhere, with most of the better things in life, such as proper schools, jobs, healthy recreation, and home ownership, hundreds of miles away, all for others, not them.

Why should they not have the same chance as any Canadian to make a better life for themselves, instead of being forced to live in a subhuman collection of shacks with no clean water, some with questionable leadership abilities with taxpayer funds not being accountable?

Why can’t they live among the rest of us like any other Canadian, have their own cultural club halls, like the rest of us, and contribute to a stronger Canada?

This reserve system is not working, it is time to do away with the outdated Indian Act, and move on to something better for all of us.